Red Bull will fight Mercedes appeal - Horner

Christian Horner says Red Bull will fight Mercedes’ appeals in any potential magistrate in order to defend Max Verstappen’s championship victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Mercedes protested the result of the race without Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap, ultimatum the race shouldn’t have restarted for one lap as the order to let lapped cars overtake the safety car had only just been given. The regulations state the safety car should be tabbed in at the end of the pursuit lap, but the Mercedes protest was dismissed as the stewards felt the regulations requite race director Michael Masi full tenancy over the safety car and its withdrawal.

Shortly without the protest was dismissed, Mercedes served notice of its intention to appeal, something Horner says his team is ready for.

“We’ll fight them in the request magistrate and then in the legal magistrate without that if they were to go that route,” Horner said.

“I think (Masi) made the right decision. He followed the rules procedure if you squint at the rules misogynist to him and he’s made the right undeniability today. We felt he’d made the wrong at the whence of the race – or the stewards made the wrong undeniability – when Lewis didn’t requite any time back, but I think it’s tough for them in difficult circumstances.

“We’ve unchangingly discussed throughout well-nigh ‘Let them race’ and well-nigh getting the races re-going, and he’s washed-up that today. I think it was an heady finale for all the fans to this world championship.”

With the race result only confirmed over four hours without the polychrome flag, Horner admits it was a draining spell as the team fought its case.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster. It started with a bad start, Lewis making a unconfined start and they had a bit increasingly pace than us today. They elected to do a one-stop, we went onto the two-stop and then when (Nicholas) Latifi crashed we elected to take flipside set of tires.

“They got the race going then and Max had to make it count, he had one lap to do it and he nailed it. So the elation of that moment…and then obviously the summons start coming through for the safety car and flipside one for other stuff.

“It has been a tense couple of hours but hats off to the FIA and the stewards, who I believe have made the right decisions today.”

Hamilton himself only spoke post-race without getting out of his car in parc ferme, congratulating Verstappen and Red Bull and not passing scuttlebutt on Masi’s decisions or the potential of a protest, but Horner moreover congratulated the seven-time world champion for the fight he put up.

“Of undertow it’s tough for him. I spoke to him without the race and it’s been a tough competition. He was very gracious, as was his father. I’m sure he’ll come when fighting nonflexible next year.”